My Daily Fix Is Why I Spend So Much Time With Folks

Posted @ 10:25 pm - Filed under Real Estate Investing, Purposeful Planning, Check This Out, Tax Shelter, IRS

Mondays are sometimes piled high and deep while other times devoid of any planned required attention. Today was one of those ‘tweener’ days. Taking care of day to day minutia, email, phone calls — you know the drill.

Then it happens, the call from the new person, the one with carrying my daily fix. This call was delayed due to emails falling into the black abyss of ‘what happened?’We finally hook up on the phone late today, and it’s the daily fix. I love talkin’ with new people who’re interested in the future, have done their own research, but found out what I keep saying is true — you can read the books until your eyes drip down your cheeks, and yer still not gonna feel that comfortable going out on our own. It simply doesn’t work that way.

So she and I are talking about her family’s situation, and quickly becoming apparent is a possible ‘have yer cake and eat it to’ scenario. Of course she laughingly admits it even before I say it. Love her already. We’re talking, and I’m learning the things I need to know, when it suddenly hits me — their tax returns are resulting in way too much of a refund. Duh. Not way too much, WAY to much.

What’s the big deal?

They decided she’d stop working a while back, and they’re living on her husband’s handsome paycheck. Since they live in a pretty ‘high cost of living’ area though, his check doesn’t go as far as many might think. Don’t jump to the conclusion they’re living over their heads, ‘cuz they’re not. Not even close. No car or plastic payments whatsoever. No payments on toys.

That huge tax refund? How ’bout a really simple and totally unoriginal idea? Why don’t we just have Hubby go to his employer and significantly increase his exemptions? After consulting with the resident expert, determining the number of exemptions resulting in these folks owing $1.80 next April should be relatively uncomplicated. If anything, they’ll probably undershoot it anyway, since they may indeed have more tax shelter this year than the last couple years have produced.

This one simple maneuver should result in an increase of his take home pay of $15-20,000 this year.

Think that might make a difference in their monthly family budget? Betcha it will.

File this under Purposeful Planning. Not everything we do at Brown and Brown is awe inspiring — mostly just effective — and yes, to stress the point, on Purpose.

How many of you out there are all excited about getting back a sizable income tax refund? Might you be more excited to have that money appear in your paycheck every couple weeks? How would it impact your family’s budget? Most folks could use the extra money in their take home pay. Or does your boat already have wings?

What if your refund is $6,000 — that’s $500 a month you loaned Uncle Sam interest free. Was it your intention to be that generous?

Doing things on Purpose isn’t just a catchy phrase. It’s what our entire modus operandi is based upon. (Almost sprained a couple fingers typing that phrase.) Often, it’s the little things that make bigger things become reality — or even possible.

Think about doing two things after you’re finished reading. Listen to both of the Purposeful Planning podcasts, located a few inches down from the top on the right of this page.

Make the decision to Contact BawldGuy.

I need another fix.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Real Estate Investing, Purposeful Planning, Check This Out, Tax Shelter, IRS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.